Using photo apps on your iPhone and iPad.

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Picaflor Flaps Its Wings

Picaflor might be the Spanish word for hummingbird, but it is also the name of a new iPhone app that lets you give your photos a unique look by selecting one color to pop out with the rest converted to black and white.

The app is really easy to use. You simply adjust the color slider to the color that you want to see, and then adjust the “range” using the two knobs on the other slider. You get to see the image in real-time as you move the sliders.

The output is full resolution (on my iPhone 5) and it saves with a watermark. To remove the watermark you can buy an in-app purchase for $1.99.

I can think of a few things I’d like to see added to the app, but both would make the app a bit more complex. One possible feature would be a brush to convert regions back to black and white since there are often a few spots you’d like to cover up. Another would be the ability to add additional colors to the selection, so you could have both the red and blue colors selected. But as I said, both of these would add complexity. I often like simple apps.

This app does exactly what it say, and is very simple. Can’t go wrong with that. Since you can download it for free, there is no reason not to try it. I even like the way the watermark changes color to match the color you have chosen. Nice little touch.

If you ever take photos of graffiti this app really lets things pop out of the photo.

The best way to show this app is using some examples. I took the photo below as I walked to work one morning. The additional photos show a variety of versions where I selected a color and range. The slider settings for each color variation are also shown.

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3 thoughts on “Picaflor Flaps Its Wings”

Great post – for an excellent little app. “I often like simple apps.” So do I, and often think that it would work out best if we just had a string of “one hit wonders” rather than wasted effort to reproduce what can be done just as easily, or in most instances, better with another app. You suggestions for improvements make good sense. I can already see that a layering / masking / blending app would do this quite easily – generate several images from Picaflor and combine them with masks – Superimpose, Blender, Filterstorm etc can do this (very well). If the people behind this excellent and very intuitive little app stuck to tings like keeping up with increasing resolution on iOS devices and writing an iPad version, then I for one would be well pleased. Thanks again for the posting – and I’m envious of the gorgeous day to walk to work!

Thanks for the nice write up. Picaflor is our first app for iOS and we appreciate the feedback. We’re currently working on landscape orientation compatibility for the next version. We agree that keeping the app simple is important and like MomentsForZen’s suggestion to use the “Picaflor’d” image in other apps to incorporate additional effects. Thanks again for the post and great sample pictures!

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Hello. This blog started in April 2011 and continues to grow.

If you are interested in photography with your iPhone and iPad be sure to drop by every now and then. I'll try to let you know about any photo apps that I happen to be using that day, or things that I notice about iPhoneography.